Via Boing Boing, some shocking news:

The internet chapter of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a secret copyright treaty whose text Obama's administration refused to disclose due to "national security" concerns, has leaked. It's bad. It says:

* * That ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material. This means that it will be impossible to run a service like Flickr or YouTube or Blogger, since hiring enough lawyers to ensure that the mountain of material uploaded every second isn't infringing will exceed any hope of profitability.

* * That ISPs have to cut off the Internet access of accused copyright infringers or face liability. This means that your entire family could be denied to the internet -- and hence to civic participation, health information, education, communications, and their means of earning a living -- if one member is accused of copyright infringement, without access to a trial or counsel.

* * That the whole world must adopt US-style "notice-and-takedown" rules that require ISPs to remove any material that is accused -- again, without evidence or trial -- of infringing copyright. This has proved a disaster in the US and other countries, where it provides an easy means of censoring material, just by accusing it of infringing copyright.

* * Mandatory prohibitions on breaking DRM, even if doing so for a lawful purpose (e.g., to make a work available to disabled people; for archival preservation; because you own the copyrighted work that is locked up with DRM)

And from an October 13, 2009 statement by Sherwin Siy of Public Knowledge, a group that received copies of the text:

While we appreciate USTR's recognition that increased participation is important, and its efforts in that regard, this process is still miles away from anything approaching real, public transparency. In terms of openness, a lot of the tension between what USTR says it wants to do and what has been done so far seems to come from the characterization of ACTA as a trade agreement, when its aims seem considerably broader than that. If we're going to be seeing a new kind of trade agreement that more broadly affects policy and legal interpretation, we're going to need a new, more open kind of process that lets the public see what agenda its government is pushing.

Nothing makes me angrier than corporations using the U.S. government for their own private security force - and the feds happily cooperating. I suppose we'll now require that copiers check copyrights every time someone makes a copy?

The Founding Fathers wanted copyrights that lasted no longer than 10 years. This isn't how America is supposed to be - and we have no right to demand it of everyone else, unless we're finally admitting we're more interested in protecting plantation corporate profits than we are in being a nation of laws.

Yesterday Arlen Specter was back at his old media home, Fox News, singing a new tune, dancing the Lieberman shuffle, calling the GOP "a party of obstructionism." Well, he's got that right; they are. And until consistent polling showed that a right-wing extremist, Club For Growth head Pat Toomey, would kick his ass from Chester to Erie and from Waynesville to Carbondale in the Republican primary, Specter was very much a part of that obstructionist machine. Staring into the eyes of political mortality, Specter cut a deal with the White House to jump the fence and "become" a Democrat. He made the purely opportunistic switch on April 28. And here he was two weeks later on Meet The Press letting Pennsylvania voters know exactly what kind of a "Democrat" he would be:

Today he was calling his old colleagues obstructionists on the exact same issue for doing precisely what he was doing, although he has also bragged about how he will also vote with Republicans against Employees Free Choice. (The only difference is that he takes even more in thinly-veiled bribes from the Medical-Industrial Complex--$4,266,393, the most of any member of Congress who didn't run for president-- and Big Insurance--$1,058,655-- than most of them do.) Oh... and there's one more difference: Admiral Joe Sestak. Joe Sestak's constant pressure on behalf of working families has pushed Specter away from his unswerving support for his corporate donors. Petrified of being defeated in the Democratic primary, Specter sounds like he's almost a Democrat.

It was in the spring of 2006 that Blue America first started following Admiral Sestak as he sought, successfully, to dislodge another corrupt Republican barnacle obstructing progress in Washington, Curt Weldon. He was one of the first candidates our PAC ever endorsed and we have been immensely impressed by something that has distinguished Rep. Sestak from almost all the other members of Congress we've worked with. He is a critical thinker who seems to relish a debate of ideas. We don't always agree on every single issue but he never gets all brittle and uptight when challenged and he is always eager for input and eager to go through the thought processes that led him to make a decision. If there's one thing I've learned since starting Blue America, it's that no one is buying a member of Congress with an endorsement and no member of Congress will agree with you on every single vote. (Barney Frank once famously said even you wouldn't agree with you on every single vote.) What we do look for is someone with a sterling character who is open-minded, courageous and with inherently progressive sympathies. That's why we've continued to support Joe Sestak and why we asked him to come over to Crooks and Liars today for a live chat. He'll be joining us this afternoon at 3pm (PT), 6pm back in Pennsylvania. And he's bringing along another ole Blue America friend, Ned Lamont.

When I spoke to Rep. Sestak on the phone last week about the health-care debate, he was very forceful. "I'm going to have a very difficult time if I'm asked to vote for a bill that doesn't have a public option," he began. "I support a public option so that individuals are no longer stuck in insurance markets with no choices and no competition to bring down costs... I want to end unfair rationing by insurance company executives, like the small business owner who came into my District office because to complain about not being able to purchase insurance for herself or her employees because she had ovarian cancer ten years ago... As vice-chairman of the small business committee, I understand the need to reduce health care costs for small businesses. Only 62% of all small firms (less than 200 employees) offer health insurance, as compared to 99% of large firms. When they do offer insurance, it costs roughly 18% more than for larger employers."

You can find the rest of Specter's real health care record at DownWithTyranny. Meanwhile, please join us in the comments section below for our chat with Joe Sestak and Ned Lamont. After you've heard them out, if you'd like to sign up as a volunteer or donate to Rep. Sestak's election fund, you can do it on his website.

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When a group of conservatives -- angered by a video showing kindergartners singing a song praising President Obama -- announced last week that they'd be protesting outside a Burlington Township, N.J., school today, school officials asked them to reconsider, since the school -- which houses kindergartners to second-graders -- would be in session:

The planned rally has school district officials planning to beef up security at the B. Bernice Young School in Burlington Township, which houses kindergartners through second-graders.

The song drew national attention last month after a video of the performance was posted on YouTube. Conservatives say it shows how schoolchildren are being indoctrinated to idolize Obama, allegations school officials have denied.

The Obama song initially was performed during a Black History Month assembly in February and was repeated in March when author Charisse Carney-Nunes, who wrote the children's book "I Am Barack Obama," visited the school.

Someone apparently with Carney-Nunes videotaped that performance and posted it at the author's Web site without the approval of school officials. A copy of that video appeared in September on YouTube, titled "School Kids Taught to Praise Obama."

Citing concerns for the safety of students and staff, Superintendent Christopher Manno has asked organizers to reconsider the protest because classes will be held that day. Manno said protesters will not be allowed on school property and additional district staffers will be on hand.

The protesters refused, of course, to reconsider:

Bill Haney, a rally organizer, said members of several groups would take part in the protest, although it was not clear Sunday how many people would be involved.

"Consider this a protest to squelch this trend to politicize our youth," organizers said in a prepared statement. "We are supporting the constitutional rights of our children and protest against the progressive social agenda promoted by the New Jersey Education Association and the National Education Association."

So there they were today, frightening children and their parents needlessly. Of course, rather than harass schoolkids, these protesters would have been more effective if they had gone, say, to a school-board meeting where decisions like these are dealt with.

At least one of the parents whose 7-year-old daughter was in the video spoke to Fox reporter Laura Ingle at the scene, and relayed her thoughts in a brief snippet:

My child's image has been hijacked, to produce -- I'm sorry, to promote a political agenda.

Now, Ingle makes this sound as if the parent is concerned about the school "indoctrinating" her child, which was what the protesters were there about. But what's clear from reading news accounts -- as well as Ingle's own reportage -- is that the parents were upset that the right-wingers had transformed a harmless school song into a cause celebre promoting the right-wing anti-Obama agenda.

This cropped up in local news accounts too:

The school district, in a statement, said that it "does not believe that protesting in front of an elementary school in session with four to seven year old children is appropriate."

The statement says that on Oct. 8, Manno contacted one of the protest's organizers personally and offered to meet with this person, who declined to meet. "It is unfortunate," the statement continued, "that an innocent, well-intentioned classroom activity by a well-respected teacher has become the object of so much debate."

Well, who were these protesters? Local parents upset with the district? -- You know, people who actually have something at stake with the conduct of their local schools?

Erm, largely no. The Courier-Post was only able to find one local couple who actually had a child at the school among the protesters (and they were more concerned with the video's release than with its content). According to the NY Daily News, they were a bunch of Glennbeckians who arrived at the school from elsewhere:

Haney's group, the 912 Project Burlington Group, is an offshoot [of] the national 912 Project founded by conservative radio and TV host Glenn Beck.

Haney said he hopes the rally will force the reassignment of school principal Denise King and will result in a reprimand of Schools Superintendent Christopher Manno by the state Board of Education.

Classy bunch, these folks.

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You all remember how the wingnuts exploded in joy at the news that Chicago had been denied its bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Rather typically, our RedState pal Erick Erickson crowed:

So much for improving America’s standing in the world, Barry O. Maybe now perhaps we can hope he will mature a bit on the issues of foreign affairs. But I doubt it.

Well, now their heads are exploding at the news that President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Here's what Erickson tweeted in response:

(Via ThinkProgress.)

Then there was Fox News. As you can see from the video above, it was like Scanners on steroids on Fox & Friends this morning, with Brian Kilmeade noting that this was the third honoree whose name was not George W. Bush. (Maybe those Swedes' "pure genes" got the better of them, eh?)

Even Michael Steele and the Republican National Committee got into the act:

“The real question Americans are asking is, ‘What has President Obama actually accomplished?’ It is unfortunate that the president’s star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights. One thing is certain – President Obama won’t be receiving any awards from Americans for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action.”

Congratulations? Perish the thought!

Blue Texan at Firedoglake has a nice roundup from around the wingnutosphere.

Meanwhile, Media Matters has compiled a handy video of the early reaction:

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One of the things that you can never anticipate fully before becoming a parent is the absolute ferocity of the instinct to protect your child. It's innate, feral, and so deep that it can actually scare you. I am profoundly grateful every day that my children were born healthy, but I know that should my luck run out and one of my kids develop some sort of life-threatening illness, there is no stone I would leave unturned in my quest to save my child. There is no length I wouldn't go for my babies.

And if all those efforts were in vain, I don't know how I'd survive the loss of my child. I had a miscarriage some years back, and I carried that loss like a huge, gaping wound inside me for so long. And that was for a child with whom I never got a chance to know or develop a real bond.

Now imagine how Hilda Sarkisyan feels. The daughter she bore, raised and nurtured for seventeen years dies just hours before the insurance company she battled finally relented to give her daughter the liver transplant she needed. Can you imagine that grief, that anger at how unnecessary Nataline's death was? All the obstacles placed in their way by a for-profit insurance company in addition to just missing Nataline had to be paralyzing in its pain.

Which makes how CIGNA employees treated Hilda Sarkisyan so much more contemptible:

Surrounded by supporters, Hilda Sarkisyan marched into Cigna Corp.’s Philadelphia headquarters on a chilly fall day, 10 months after the company refused to pay for a liver transplant for her daughter.

"You guys killed my daughter," the diminutive San Fernando Valley real estate agent declared at the lobby security desk. "I want an apology."

What she got was something quite different.

Cigna employees, looking down into the atrium lobby from a balcony above, began heckling her, she said, with one of them giving her "the finger."

Sarkisyan walked out, stunned and hurt.

"They showed me their true colors," she said. "Shame on them."

This woman has just gone through a pain I wouldn't wish on anyone--watching her child die needlessly--because CIGNA decided there wasn't enough of a cost-benefit to them to authorize a liver transplant. A for-profit insurance agency acted as a de facto death panel, opting to let this child die. Got that, GOP? There's the death panel you fear-monger. But they're not some hypothetical used to scare Grandma and Grandpa, they're REAL and some day, they may decide that you--or worse, your child--are not worth the cost of saving.

And don't be surprised if they show their heartlessness by heckling you and flipping you off when you walk in their doors to ask why.

And as if on cue, here comes Fox News, defending CIGNA:

Dear God, where's the humanity?

Do you remember Kirk Cameron, former child star and current promoter of the banana-as-proof-of-God theory of evangelism?

Well, he's baaaack:

In a video posted recently to YouTube, Cameron lays out a plan to subvert 'Darwin Day' on November 22, 2009 -- a date marking the 150th anniversary of the publishing of Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species." Cameron says that he and like-minded activists plan to deliver 50,000 copies of an altered version of Darwin's book to students at dozens of U.S. universities.

Cameron explains that this "very special" edition of the "Origin of Species" will include an introduction explaining "Adolf Hitler's undeniable connection" to the theory of evolution, and highlighting "Darwin's racism" and "his disdain for women." Cameron's edition also exposes the "many hoaxes" of evolutionary theory, while presenting a "balanced view of Creationism." (There's a pdf of this introduction here.)

Super classy guy, that Cameron. Tying Darwin to Hitler. And misogyny and racism. What, no pedophilia or necrophilia? A YouTuber who goes by the name ZOMGitsCriss responds to Cameron's plans:

WARNING: Strong language, not safe for work.

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After doing another hit piece on Tammy Duckworth and editing her comments from the previous show, Chris Wallace ends the show by reading some viewer emails, one of which praises him for "holding Secretary Duckworth's feet to the fire". Tammy Duckworth is a double amputee who lost both of her legs when her helicopter was shot down in Iraq. Way to stay classy Wallace.

Long gone are the days when AC/DC would release Highway to Hell, Back in Black, and For Those About to Rock... We Salute You in a span of three years, traded for long periods of who-knows-what after groups release their most cherished albums. Thus, only now are we hearing peepings of a new Outkast album to follow on the heels of the massive, dense, and universall adored Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. As someone I can't stand once said, it's been awhile.

Better late than never, I suppose. Here's one half of the duo, Big Boi, talking about how at least a preliminary beat or two has been laid down. I guess it's a start?

“For all you Outkast lovers the album is coming. I’m tired of talking about it and know y’all are tired of hearing me talk about it. But its coming and the album is fire!” Big Boi exclaimed. “The Kast album is top secret but Organized Noise had done the first couple of beats off there. We got Dre working on his solo so we’re going to help him tighten that up. The Kast album is coming, then we got the Goodie Mob album coming, and then the Ceelo-Goodie album so it’s Dungeon Family for life!”

I predict February 2011 -- which will make Speakerboxxx/The Love Below as old as Polaroid pictures were when Andre 3000 told us to shake it like one.

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The fine folks at WorldNetDaily -- the wingnut outfit that was the original source of most of the Birther conspiracy theories, and remains their most ardent defender -- has a new theory it wants to trot out for mainstream consumption:

Barack Obama is actually the anti-Christ. Jesus said so!

An American Christian has produced a brief film for YouTube that connects one statement by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke to President Barack Obama.

His 4-minute video focuses on the direct quote: "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." (Luke 10:18)

"When I started doing a little research, I found the Greek word for 'lightning' is 'astrape', and the Hebrew equivalent is 'Baraq,'" said YouTube contributor "ppsimmons," a self-described Christian with a theological education and many years in the ministry, who spoke to WND under condition of anonymity out of concern for members of his local church. "I thought that was fascinating."

As he continued looking into the rest of the words in the phrase, he focused on "heaven," and found that it can refer not just to God's dwelling place, but also "the heights" or "high places."

He then recalled Isaiah 14:14, where Lucifer, another name for Satan, is quoted as saying, "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High."

"I wondered what the word 'heights' is," said ppsimmons, "and I looked it up in the dictionary, and it's 'Bamah.'"

Thus, on the video, the announcer notes, "If spoken by a Jewish rabbi today, influenced by the poetry of Isaiah, He (Jesus) would say these words in Hebrew ... 'I saw Satan as Baraq Ubamah.'"

Of course, both the "Christian" and WND then go to some pains to try to claim that they're not suggesting Obama is the anti-Christ. Which is sort of like saying you're not a racist after calling a black person the N-word.

I'm just waiting for Lou Dobbs to trot this one out and start mainstreaming it for public consumption. Or, more likely, Glenn Beck.

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Well, we've seen plenty of recent evidence that Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the nativist law-enforcement chief of Maricopa County, Arizona, attracts genuine extremists in support of his cause.

This recently released YouTube by Humanleague makes the case even more starkly. Its centerpiece is the opening comments by an avid supporter of the Minutemen and Sheriff Arpaio named Brandi Baron, who opines thus:

Baron: I say, give orders to shoot to kill, and kill any man, woman or child who comes across the border illegally. I'll bet you, you kill enough of them, right off the bat, people will stop coming over that way.

[Questioner]

That's what I just said. Personally, I think a minefield would be good. Why build a fence when you can plant some mines?

Q: You just said that you would kill kids.

Baron: If they're being drug across the border, hell yes. The difference between those people and us -- Our country is No. 1. Theirs? Pffft!

This sort of inhuman callousness and disregard for human life is part and parcel of why nativist movements like the Minutemen -- and the mainstream embrace of such factions by public figures like Arpaio -- inevitably spawn violent offspring like Shawna Forde and her gang of killer Minutemen, who gunned down a family in cold blood because they mistakenly believed the father was a big-time drug dealer with cash on the premises. There's a powerful continuum between gangs like Forde's and "mainstream" nativists like Arpaio and his supporters.

As Jill Garvey at Imagine 2050 observes:

This is exactly why Shawna Forde felt justified in breaking into a Latino family’s home and murdering a little girl and her father.

While some of the individuals featured on this video may be unstable or exhibit strange behavior, they are not crazy. These are functioning adults who are perfectly capable of behaving in a reasonable manner. They choose not to. They choose hate over tolerance. They choose to advocate violence over rational dialogue. Violence against immigrants occurs because bigots in positions of power (Sheriff Joe) set the stage and provide an atmosphere that make it acceptable.

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Have you given to C&L's Donation Drive? Here's a friendly reminder from David, Nigel, Derek and Ed Begley Jr., guesting on the drums.

I've been racking my brain to see if I could come up with a Donation Drive playlist of the top 5 songs asking for financial assistance. It wasn't easy:

1. Spinal Tap - Gimme Some Money
2. Barrett Strong - Money (That's What I Want)
3. Bing Crosby - Brother, Can You Spare a Dime
4. Destiny's Child - Bills
5. Tommy James and the Shondells - Mony Mony (This one's a stretch.)

Honorable mention: The Network (Green Day's alter ego) - Spike

What else?

We're supposed to keep the LNMC apolitical, but David Wild's new list of songs for Ahmadinejad is too good to pass up.

At your own risk, here's my Playlist For A Total Dick-Tator: Songs To Put You In The Mahmoud:

"Elected" - Alice Cooper
"The Clampdown" - The Clash
"The Winner Takes All" - Abba
"Psycho Killer" - Talking Heads
"Boom Boom Pow" - Black Eyed Peas
"The Bitch Is Back" - Elton John
"Little Man" - Tom Waits
"Know Your Enemy" - Green Day
"Heartless" - Kanye West
"Hoedown Throwdown" - Miley Cyrus
"Frail Grasp On The Big Picture" - The Eagles
"So Small" - Carrie Underwood
"Bastard" - Ben Folds

I can't believe he forgot Short People by Randy Newman, Steal Away (The Night) by Ozzy Osbourne, or Wild in the Streets by the Circle Jerks.

Poor Andy K!

Our webmaster Jamie sent the Crooks and Liars team a terrific link to a guy who re-configured his circa 1982 Commodore 64 computer so he could run Twitter from it. I said I could see running the youtube as an open thread -- dang, it's got five and a quarter inch discs in the video! -- if only I could mash it with Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science."

Andy swore that song would stick in his brain for the rest of the day. Good heavens!

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The Loving Kind from Howie Klein.

When I mentioned to Rolling Stone writer (and author) Eric Boehlert that I was going to be talking with Nanci Griffith, his response was positively over the top. "I'm such a big fan. Right after college I discovered her. Sorta weird, I was such a huge rock fan and suddenly at 22 and 24 years old I'm listening to "Spin On A Red Brick Floor," and "Gulf Coast Highway." My friends thought I was nuts." Now they probably think he was prescient. Eric reminded me that Nanci was part of the proud and breathtaking legacy of MCA/Nashville President Tony Brown, along with Steve Earle and Lyle Lovett. Brown produced her biggest charting country album, Lone Star State of Mind but these days most people think of her as a folk singer.

Funny, she always has seen herself that way. "I've always written about social issues," she told me on the phone a couple of days ago, "because I consider myself a folk song writer. I started writing "Not Innocent Enough," [the chillingly gorgeous song about the 2007 execution of Philip Workman from The Loving Kind] 4 years ago, long before Philip was executed. It just didn't have an ending. Sometimes an issue like that one... it just takes a while to see how it's going to reconcile itself." A decade and a half ago Nanci won a Grammy (Best Contemporary Folk Album for Other Voices, Other Rooms.

And the death penalty is hardly the only contentious issue Nanci has taken on with her new album-- which will be out June 9. The title track is what hooked me to the album and opened me up to her new record. "The Loving Kind" floored me and I couldn't wait to make a clip for it and write about it. I had never heard about the precedent-setting Loving v Virginia Supreme Court case, which led to an ending to dozens of states' laws that criminalized interracial marriage, until I listened to Nanci sing it. She had never heard about it until she read Mildred Loving's obituary in 2007. "I read that obituary and I just broke down in tears, that I had never heard of this case. It really struck me, especially Mildred's comments about gay marriage. It just brings the whole thing home-- her hopes and her dreams that someday, although she was not a political person, that their case, Loving v Virginia would make a difference for people who are in love with each other. Government does not belong in love."

In 2004 Nanci joined with other progressives in the Nashville music scene to form the Music Row Democrats which worked to prevent Bush from getting an undeserved second term. She said she was surprised by the response. "We all came out of the closet because Nashville is pretty much known as a Republican town and all of these record executives and music people and publishers came out as Music Row Democrats. There were people who never in my life would have thought were Democrats." I asked her if she'd ever considered running against Nashville's reactionary Blue Dog congressman, Jim Cooper. Unfortunately, she laughed.

"I could never get into politics; my past doesn't hold up too well. Being on NPR talking about all the LSD I did when I was in my teenage years... I don't think will hold up very well in running for office... The first song I remember writing was 'Where Are You Now, Dr. Timothy Leary' and I clearly wrote the song when I was doing LSD. I made it through typing class on LSD"

Anyway, Nanci has a bigger stage than Jim Cooper anyway and her songs move and effect a lot more people than his speeches. Judging my the artistic growth in evidenced in The Loving Kind she'll be writing songs for many, many years to come. I doubt anything's going to ever shut her up. When I asked her about the Bush Regime allies who savaged the Dixie Chicks and tried putting them out of business, I could hear the edge of anger in her sweet voice. "I never stopped saying whatever I was saying against the Bush administration abroad. I don't care what those people who crucified the Dixie Chicks... they're not my fans anyway."

Before joining us in the comments section below, please give yourself a treat and listen to "The Loving Kind" up at the top of this post.

My hat off to Natasha Chart of MyDD and OpenLeft for pointing me to this fantastic take on the issue of Web2.0, censorship and political activism.

With web 2.0, we’ve embraced the idea that people are going to share pictures of their cats, and now we build sophisticated tools to make that easier to do. as a result, we’re creating a wealth of tech that’s extremely helpful for activists. There are twin revolutions going on - the ease of creating content and the ease of sharing it with local and global audiences.

Author Ethan Zuckerman looks at political activism in Tunisia, China and Bahrain and how the respective governments tried to shut down the activists by blocking access to various sites like Daily Motion and YouTube, only to create more activists upset at the censorship of their right to look at cute kitties. The entire essay with all its links is well worth your time.

But that's international activism. Here at home, the internet has enabled a whole new swath of citizen journalists. And they are picking up the slack for the old media:

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